World Championship G1 – a fighting draw sets the tone

5/11/2012 – In the most anticipated match of the year, the World Championship got under way with Vishy Anand against challenger Boris Gelfand. It was neither the cataclysmic opener of his match against Topalov in 2010 nor a dull draw, though draw it was. The game was a fascinating Grünfeld, which has been summarised for us by IM Malcolm Pein. Full report with pictures and commentary.

The World Chess Championship 2012 is being staged in the Tretyakov Gallery
in Moscow, between the current World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India and
the winner of the Candidates tournament Boris Gelfand of Israel. The match is
over twelve games and lasts from May 11 to 30. The prize fund is US $2.55 million,
the winner getting $1.53 million (60%), the loser $1,02 million (40%).

Round one report

By IM Malcolm Pein

In game one of the 2010 WCC final, Anand played the Gruenfeld against Topalov
and after 24 moves he could resign. In 2012, Anand had to face the Gruenfeld
in the first game and after 24 moves, the challenger Boris Gelfand had secured
a draw with black and will be the slightly happier of the two. Gelfand would
have been satisfied with a draw before the game and psychologically speaking,
he struck a small blow by springing a surprise and answering 1.d4 with the Gruenfeld
Defence.

The d-pawn! Anand tells FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov which move to
make...

... and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov ceremoniously starts the first game with 1.d4

Boris usually plays Slav, Semi Slav, Queen's Gambit or Nimzo/Queen's Indian
and so he immediately demonstrated that he has plenty of ideas. The Gruenfeld
is considered a bit risky at the very top level. Kasparov lost a few times with
it, but Anand has not faced it often, so it was a shrewd choice. As they say
in the financial markets there was a 'flight to safety' as Anand opted for 8.Bb5+
which has a reputation of being a harmless line but one which requires a little
accuracy from Black. On move nine, Anand decided to play aggressively and avoid
9.0-0 which he has played before but which can lead to dull equality. 9.d5!?
was almost a novelty but I thought it had been played before. I couldn't place
it but then, in the darker recesses of my (very unreliable) memory I remembered
losing a game against GM Gyozo Forintos at the Benedictine International in
Manchester 30 years ago. But ChessBase is a wonderful thing sometimes and it
turns out that was with 9.0-0 0-0 10.d5 Qa5 11.Rb1. So I can't claim ownership
of that move, but the way it turned out, it wouldn't be much of a claim.

Press photographers bustling around the stage at the start of game one Anand-Gelfand

Vishy Anand watches as Boris Gelfand goes for the Gruenfeld with 2...g6
and...

3...d5. This must have come as a bit of a surprise for the World Champion.

Gelfand comfortably navigated the complications and when Anand went in for
a long think after 13...Qa5 the silicon collective, otherwise known as 'Let's
Check' had decided Black was more than okay. Anand had sacrificed a
pawn and by the time he retrieved it, Gelfand had safely castled. Then it was
just a question of whether Black had something tangible, as he was in possession
of the bishop pair and a potentially strong passed 'a' pawn. 22...Bd7 was more
ambitious but as the players said after the game, Black had no real advantage.
One shouldn't pay too much attention to a computer assessment of +0.1-0.2.

Commentary on game one by Daniel King

Commentary on game one by Andrew Martin

Video stream of round one (from the official World
Championship site)

Once again the Russian organisers are providing unprecedented
coverage,
with a HD video stream of the action and commentary by visiting grandmasters.

See also

9/26/2017 – The final classical game. The finals has been relatively sedate with three draws until now. But it could all end today with one decisive game. Ding Liren has the black pieces today. It's going to be an exciting game. Games kick off at 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EST) with live commentary from Tbilisi by GMs Evgeny Miroshnichenko and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and live updates by our reporters Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal.

See also

7/5/2017 – This is neither prank nor clever wording: Garry Kasparov will be playing in the official St. Louis leg of the Grand Chess Tour from August 14-19, 2017. Please note that this is the Rapid and Blitz competition, just as the ones held in Paris and Levuen these last weeks, and not the classical events. However, this is not an exhibition event, and will determine the official Grand Chess Tour rankings as well as FIDE ratings of the players. Here is the press release.

Video

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